Lying in the weeds: Jon Coupal

Once again it is time for taxpayers to get a good grip on their wallets because Sacramento politicians are looking to extend the “temporary” taxes imposed by Proposition 30, approved by voters less than two years ago.

There is nothing more permanent than a temporary tax. They are as immortal as a vampire and nearly as hard to kill. Take the “temporary” tax imposed in 1898 to pay for the Spanish-American War. It remained on the books until 2006 when Congress discovered that the Spanish-American War ended a century earlier.

More recently and more relevant to Californians, two decades ago the political establishment — both Republicans and Democrats — backed a 1¼ percent increase in the state sales tax, a half-cent of which was supposed to be temporary. (The tax increase was justified, in part, on the argument that the higher taxes were less pernicious than deficit spending. But this tax package just institutionalized even greater spending and debt.)

At the time, to quell opposition, Sacramento politicians went out of their way to draw public attention to the temporary nature of the half-cent increase. But within a year of its expiring, it was reinstated and made permanent through a ballot measure whose passage backers claimed was absolutely essential to maintain local public safety services.

In 2012, Gov. Jerry Brown and his government employee union allies backing Proposition 30 promised the tax increases would be temporary, that the sales tax increase would expire in 2016 and the income tax increase on upper-middle income earners, and above, would expire in 2018.

But the politicians, who have been lying in the weeds waiting until closer to the expiration date to spring an extension of the tax increases on unwary taxpayers, are already tipping their hand.

In January, state schools chief Tom Torlakson called for an extension of Proposition 30 beyond its full expiration in 2018.

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“We need to renew Prop. 30,” the Superintendent of Public Instruction told a meeting of PTA leaders.

Now state Sen. Mark Leno has spoken up, telling an education rally at San Francisco City Hall it’s time to start thinking about the need to extend the Proposition 30 tax increases. One of the reasons Leno opposes the governor’s effort to establish a prudent budget reserve is that such a “rainy day fund” would make it harder to justify a continuation of higher taxes on sales and incomes.

While it is common to question the veracity of politicians, in this case, it would be wise to accept these Sacramento leaders’ comments as genuine expressions of their greed for ever greater amounts of taxpayer dollars

Gov. Brown, to his credit, has urged majority Democrats in the Legislature to make due with current revenues and keep faith with the voters by letting the taxes expire on schedule.

But even this responsible approach, a reflection of his minimalist approach in his first two terms, may not help taxpayers much as we approach 2018, the year that, even if he is re-elected, Brown will end his final term.

Meanwhile, the Sacramento politicians are salivating over the prospect of new and extended taxes.

“Shoot for the moon,” Sen. Leno told a reporter. “We might not get there, but that’s where we have to start.”

However, Leno and his colleagues are not shooting for the moon; they are shooting for taxpayers’ wallets.

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. www.hjta.org